A Story of Addiction, Dysfunction, Codependency… and Horses
Patti Smith's album, that is. Here’s an excerpt from Many Braves Fools, and the way the album contributed to me actually showing up for my first ever lesson 🐴🐴🐴… — The wee girls circled round and round, their legs pounding the sides of their ponies, and I was feeling breathless. As excited as I was …
Continue reading "In Honour of the 50th Anniversary of Horses"
Back on my shizz. I noticed I was looking down again, as I went about my day. The difference between the two views is striking, and it reminded me of this excerpt from Many Brave Fools... *** Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley, a horsewoman, writes in her memoir A Year at the Races about how …
Hmmmm. It's not like I haven't tried, as a cursory search through this weblog will reveal more than one selfie with more than one horse. It only stands to reason that a selfie with a horse is an equie. Right? Even after all the horses with whom I've posed, it's just not catching on. Connell …
OR DO I? Off I went, to have my weirdly strong reading glasses checked, the ones I got before the Rona kicked off, and I was taking my usual informal poll of how many people were going about masked. Informal statistic: not many. On my corner sits a real estate agent whose plate glass windows …
Continue reading "I Need to Stop Talking to People Like They Are Horses"
I was cleaning out the inbox of one of my email addys [and forwarding some stuff to another one LOL] when I came across the below. This is from 2018 which in 2020 time-framing is exactly one million years ago. I had started writing about this while away from my desk; I sent it to …
Continue reading "On Replacement Horses and Not Freaking Out"
In honour of hoping that the two long sticks I have hidden are still where I put them when lessons are back on. *** September, 2012 A couple of weeks ago — see, I didn't even bother writing about this, because honestly, this is like the eleventy billionth post on this topic. A couple of …
Continue reading "The Crop Chronicles: If You Love Something, Set it Free…"
The first time I experienced open order in a lesson, within two minutes I was like, 'Yeah, no, thanks but let's go back to the other way.' The other way was warming up in a group; open order meant we were warming up, but individually. At that stage I wasn't riding very independently, not yet. …
Not that it's a good thing. It's what we're all missing during this sheltering in place/self-isolation time. With the lack of human contact—and additionally in my case, contact with the horses—the production of endogenous opiates is way down, if not gone. I'm trying to get topped up on negative ions from being by the sea, …
We may be nearing the end of this series.. *** OH, DON'T BE SILLY—NOT HORSEBACK RIDING! I tried. I did, I really did. But the dressage whip is the only thing Rebel respects, and it now seems pointless for me to ride without it. Which means I gotta figure out how to get it from …
An experienced horse person might read about my first successful crack at a course and scoff. If I was bothered by that, it might serve to minimise the sheer joy I can still tap into when I think about it. Luckily: not bothered. In the same way, there's a lot of chat on socials about …
MANY BRAVE FOOLS 